Part III. Reading Comprehension (42%) (共18小题)
Directions: Read the following passage and finish the tasks afterwards.
Coping with Infoglut
Para. 1. If it isn’t announced by a ring, beep, or flash on your telephone, it’s delivered to your front desk by a person in uniform. If it isn’t spat out by a machine that looks like a printer but takes phone calls, it’s transmitted to your PC, announced perhaps by a little toot of arrival. Welcome to the Age of Infoglut (信息过剩). Every day, managers are deluged by emails, faxes, post, voice mail. Just sorting everything out adds hours and extra stress to a working week. One British psychologist claims to have identified a new mental disorder caused by too much information; he calls it Information Fatigue Syndrome.
Para. 2. Of course, companies have a huge appetite for information, and have encouraged the development of systems to produce, store, and analyze it. A recent study by Pitney Bowes, in Stamford, Connecticut, found that an average white-collar worker at a Fortune 1000 company sends and receives an average of 190 messages a day, in a variety of electronic and paper formats. “It has become completely overwhelming,” says Sheryl Battles, Executive Director of External Affairs at Pitney Bowes. She reported that trying to manage the volume of information was redefining productivity in the workplace. In a knowledge economy, the real goal is to get through all the messages. “The infoglut has especially affected senior-level executives,” adds Battles. More than ever, managers need strategies for identifying and prioritizing information.
Para. 3. Email is a primary culprit (引发问题的事物). In the past, lower-level workers would never have dreamed of interrupting the chief finance officer with simple questions such as whether hotel movies can be expensed. “Today, however, those workers have no problem asking such questions via email, which is seen as less intrusive,” says Battles. It should be noted, however, that some executives have turned email to their advantage, finding in the medium a new and convenient way of running a business. Former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, for instance, reportedly spends hours a day reading and sending emails.
Para. 4. The study also identified something Pitney Bowes calls “messaging meltdown”. That’s when people try to reinforce their messages with other messages. For example, they might leave you a voice mail message that they are faxing a report. In addition, they might also send the report via email. Then, they might make a follow-up phone call to make sure you received the fax and the email.
Para. 5. Arlen Henock, Chief Tax Counsel at Pitney Bowes, didn’t need a survey to find out which way that data is flowing. He said that there had been a significant increase of information flow over the last few years in his office. He also admitted that dealing with the flow has crept into his personal time. “Each night I take home my faxes and other paperwork,” says Henock. During a typical workday Henock is a self-admitted information junkie. He gets up at 6 am and, over breakfast, finishes reading any paperwork left over from the night before. On the way to work he checks his voice mail with his car cell phone and responds to any messages that need immediate attention. “Although I check my voice mail before I leave for home (typically at 7.30 pm), there are usually new messages in the morning,” he says. Europe, after all, has been up for hours.
Task Three
Direction: Choose the best words to replace the words in italics and bold.
34. Information is being produced faster than managers can process it.
A) deal with B) define C) understand
35. Messages are transmitted to your PC throughout the day.
A) received B) sent C) transformed
36. An average white-collar worker at a Fortune 1000 company sends and receives an average of 190 messages a day.
A) manager B) office worker C) software technician
37. “It has become completely overwhelming,” says Sheryl Battles.
A) wonderful B) enormous C) overlooking
38. Email is a primary culprit.
A) main B) serious C) huge
39. Email is seen as less intrusive than other forms of communication.
A) personal B) formal C) disturbing
40. Email is a new a convenient way of running a business.
A) flexible B) practical C) instant
41. Bill Gates reportedly spends hours a day reading and sending emails.
题目内容
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